If Tomorrow Never Comes
by supercsi4
Summary: Ryan thinks Calleigh’s dead. Calleigh thinks Ryan’s dead. But everything ends happily ever after. CaRWash.


**If Tomorrow Never Comes**

By: supercsi4

It was another sweltering summer day. Another day of crime. Another day Ryan and Calleigh would work together and deny their feelings for each other. Just another day in Miami.

Ryan, Calleigh, Sofia, Heather, Derek, and Gary were the six CSIs called out to today's big crime scene right out on the beach. There was one man dead, who Alex was currently examining and one woman in critical condition, who was being prepared to be flown via helicopter to shock trauma.

Everyone was split up and assigned to different parts of the crime scene. Ryan was going to be flying in the helicopter with the woman to the hospital and Calleigh was riding back to the lab with Alex and the dead body. The helicopter crew was in a hurry to get the victim off the beach and to the hospital, but quickly realized Ryan wouldn't fit with everyone else in the helicopter, so he ran over to Gary and told him to let Calleigh know he'd be riding in a separate ambulance to the hospital, so he would be gone much longer. Ryan would have ran over and told her himself, but the EMTs were rushing him along, so he just had to go. He'd call her later, he'd explain everything later, he'd do it all later. Then he drove away in the ambulance just before the helicopter took off.

Calleigh had noticed Ryan preparing to get into the helicopter and a small fear arose inside her, concerned that Ryan would be up in the air flying around in a small helicopter. But she had to stay focused, a storm was coming in and they had to get this crime scene wrapped up. Alex was already set to head back to the lab with the body, so Calleigh left her Hummer for Sofia to drive back to the lab in. As Alex drove them away, Calleigh watched the helicopter take off in her side mirror. She turned to Alex and they began discussing this confusing case.

About a mile from the crime scene, there was a huge crash, both Calleigh and Alex assumed it was a thunder crash from the approaching storm, so Alex stepped on the gas to make it back to the lab before the rain began.

But it wasn't a thunder crash, it was a helicopter crash. The helicopter that Ryan was supposed to be in had crashed back down onto the ground and exploded onto the crime scene right where Calleigh was supposed to be. Arriving back at the lab, an alert came across the police scanner that there had been a helicopter crash on the beach where Calleigh and Alex had just left and the helicopter was carrying the man's wife of a crime that had occurred that morning. Calleigh froze and looked at Alex. "Ryan was on that helicopter," Calleigh said. She could have sworn her heart had stopped beating and she couldn't breath. "I'm sure he's okay," Alex tried to reassure Calleigh until the next line was heard across the scanner, "No survivors."

"Oh my god," Calleigh thought she was going to pass out, she ran from the van and into the lab, she needed to get more information, she needed verification, this couldn't be happening. She reached for her cell phone, but remembered it was in her Hummer and in a million pieces by now. Calleigh ran to the break room where some others were gathered watching the news unfold on the screen. The lab was in complete chaos, the explosion had killed everyone on board the helicopter and everyone on the ground at the crime scene and had now closed down the north and south bound lanes of the highway adjacent to the crash site.

"No survivors," just kept echoing in Calleigh's head. Ryan was dead and the last thing she had said to him this morning was, "You take the critical and ride with her to the hospital." Oh god, she sent Ryan onto that helicopter. It was her fault he was dead. Calleigh had killed Ryan. She ran to the locker room, sat down on the bench and cried hysterically. She had fallen in love with Ryan, but no one knew. Hell, Calleigh didn't even admit it to herself until her recent life and death situation of almost drowning to death. Now she'd never see his smile again, he'd never know how she felt about him.

When Calleigh first met Ryan, she was still angry, sad and depressed about Speedle's death. A newbee brought in to determine whether Calleigh's own father was a murderer or not. Ryan was a cute, dorky street cop trying his hand with the CSIs. But since then, she had seen him grow and thrive so far beyond what she could have ever imagined. He's intelligent, sexy as hell and always knew how to make her smile. Slowly by surely, Calleigh had also evolved and grew into a person who could trust a man again and even risk falling in love.

Meanwhile, Ryan had finally made it to the hospital to find out that the helicopter hadn't even made it there yet. He thought that was a little weird, so he headed to the front desk to ask some questions when he noticed the latest news flash on the tv. He began choking for air and he thought he'd throw up. He couldn't believe was he was seeing. The helicopter he was supposed to be on had crashed, right back down onto…oh no…was that Calleigh's Hummer…demolished, barely recognizable…oh god…was she… "No survivors," two words came out of the reporter's mouth and it was like she had just stabbed him in the chest. Calleigh's dead.

He had to get back to the lab now. Ryan had gotten a cop to drive him back to the lab, but it took forever, roads were closed and traffic was at a standstill. Ryan had tried calling Calleigh, praying this was all some kind of misunderstanding, but for the first time ever, she didn't answer her phone. Ryan sat in the back of the cop car and cried. Calleigh was dead and there were so many things he wanted to say to her, needed to say to her, but he always assumed he'd have tomorrow to do it. He'd do it later, but now there was no later.

When Ryan first met Calleigh, she walked into the lab's garage as he examined her father's car. He had thought an angel had dropped down from the sky in front of him…until she opened her mouth. She was determined, upfront and to the point. She had an unbreakable hard outer shell, but with one smile, she had him addicted. He stumbled over his words in front of her so many times. Her beauty was startling, her smile was mesmerizing. Ryan would do anything for Calleigh. She had been shot at a couple times and almost drowned, but at the end of the day, she would always be back at the lab to smile at him and say goodbye. Today he realized he wouldn't get that chance.

Ryan arrived at the lab and nearly flew out of the car, into the building and up the elevator. He had to get up to the lab and find out what really happened, if he could help and if Calleigh was really dead? Wiping his eyes on his shirt sleeves once again, he tried to make it look like he hadn't been crying, but that was useless, he had cried throughout the entire drive here. But when the elevator doors opens, his heart stopped.

Calleigh had tried as hard as possible to pull herself together and get back out to work, to do her job and then get the hell out of there. She stepped out of the locker room and headed to the elevator to go down to see Alex in the morgue. The elevator dinged and the doors opened and the tears started again.

Ryan was alive. Calleigh was alive. They both stood still for a few seconds, not believing who was standing in front of them, not trusting their bloodshot eyes thru the tears. The looks on their faces showed how they thought the other was dead, but it was a miracle they were both given another chance. Ryan stepped out of the elevator and Calliegh ran into his arms, almost knocking him over. They were both crying and holding on for dear life.

"I love you," Ryan said

"I love you too," Calleigh responded.

They both had just said those powerful three words like they had said it a thousand times, but really it had never been said before. They hadn't ever been out on a romantic date or had even hugged before, but it just came out naturally. It was like they were brought back to life for each other.

Their embrace ended all too soon, when Eric and H approached them to bring them back to reality and the reality that they were still at work and still had a job to do. Knowing that they were both safe and sound and alive made it a little easier to separate from each other and get back to work and back into the chaos. Calleigh was headed to interrogation and Ryan to assist in reconstruction.

Later that night Calleigh was finally off and at home in her apartment. She had showered, changed, and cried some more and was on her way out to go to Ryan's, but when she opened the door to leave, there stood Ryan about to knock, exhaustion clearly showing on his face, but Calleigh's apartment was the first place he had to go after work. Still she wanted to pinch herself to be sure she wasn't dreaming and that Ryan was really standing there alive in her doorway.

"I was just on my way over to--" But Calleigh didn't get to finish her sentence before Ryan's lips crashed onto hers, forcing her back inside her apartment, he kicked her door shut and pushed her up against the nearest wall.

"I thought I lost you," Ryan said in barely a whisper against Calleigh's neck, holding her in an embrace even tighter then they had shared earlier at the lab.

"I know…I don't ever want to feel like that again," Calleigh cried against his cheek. "Make me forget," she pleaded.

"I'm gonna love you like this is the last day of my life," Ryan promised as they stumbled back into Calleigh's bedroom, clothes falling away from their bodies as they go. Ryan fell onto the bed on top of Calleigh, beginning a long night of making love like it was the last night they would ever have together. Never knowing what tomorrow might bring.

THE END


End file.
